countdown

careful, this is time-sensitive material,

everything around here comes with an expiration date:

including you, including me

what we’re dealing with is highly flammable,

subject to go sour, to go haywire,

& we ourselves are perishing as we speak—

albeit faster or slower than others

careful, abbreviations have a way of strategically

hiding their intent, their true meaning

last time i bothered to check, for example,

HAZMAT was an abbreviation for hazardous material,

VIP was for very important person,

stood for quite astutely or for quite a shame

BYOB was short for bring your own booze,

your own source of entertainment

or your own source of getting merry

without the marry, till death do us part, in it

what we’re dealing with always finds a way

of blowing up in someone’s face,

in someone’s achilles’ heel,

& most likely will come back to haunt us

careful, proceed with caution:

out of habit, it’s what we tell our fill in the blank selves

when it comes to life keep your eyes & ears open,

no need to remind ourselves

what to do & not to do with our hands, our mouth,

which rules to question & which orders to ignore

what we’re dealing with will sooner or later

go out of print, out of circulation

careful, as well, with acronyms, the gall of synonyms,  

with poets who abbreviate their first & second names,

with getting emotionally attached

the air preserves & spoils at the same time,

feeds the fire & kills the fish,

what we have in our hands is not a replica

is not a mini time bomb

c. a. campos, 2010